I miss a time when I could feel complete satisfaction simply from collecting a power crystal and destroying every box in a level. The reasons why boxes deserved the fate of genocide didn’t matter, only the fact that an empty slot in my inventory needed to be filled by a gem did. Perhaps that is a little facetious, I would still not particularly care about the masochistic pixel hunt that was basically a realistic Nazi simulation... except I found Anne Frank... box form Anne Frank. However in every modern story-based title this thought process always will arise. I don’t feel as a gamer I can take anything at face value anymore. Deeper meanings may not always be contextualised within a game or its world; however that doesn’t mean I won’t over analyse and stew on the finest details. The less explained, the more I get to think about... how lucky.

I’ve been wondering a lot lately, how this has come about?   I’m sure the fact meaningful stories have only recently become a facet of videogame canon is a primary reason; however a lot more has changed within myself than the actual medium.

One of my favourite games as a child was the penultimate collectathon that was Donkey Kong 64. The story hinged on the need for Golden Bananas to defeat K.Rool; however the motivation for myself as the player was simple human instinct. No reward was discussed or even needed, just the fact that I could obtain a form of accomplishment for finishing what has been started.   This is the first example I can think of where I didn’t care what the game had to say I was creating my own story. That story being, it is an absolute bastard to find everything in that game, but dammit it feels great when you do. This simple idea that I could create stories through videogames has evolved with me through the years. Where this first example depicts a picture of ignoring the story in favour of gameplay, the evolution of this idea has strangely come full circle into a deeper reading of what is displayed as narrative.

Bioshock created an atmospheric world for the player to interact with, not only physically but emotionally. Seeing horrific sights of brutalisation and debauchery left an echoing emptiness in its wake. That corpse belonged to a life and the truth of its fate will remain buried under the sea. What hit me on much deeper than this face-value assessment of Rapture was Andrew Ryan’s motives. His visualisation of a utopia held a lot more meaning into human wants and needs than the savage visual of its eventual insanity ever could. People were willing to follow the leader in hopes of perfection; they were willing to leave everything based on the words of another. The irony being that Ryan’s entire personality balanced on “ a man chooses, and a slave obeys”.

The complete devastation of Rapture could be seen as a tragic failure in human nature, however Ryan may have seen it as paradise... a world where people followed every inclination they felt. Every emotion was met with a reaction. The lust for blood lead to deaths and the want for growth lead to life. A circle of chaos that optimised pure human nature. None of this is ever explained and through that reason, so much more meaning can be felt. An eight hour game can quite honestly weigh on my mind for several days and this could have never been achieved a decade ago. People now complain why everything isn’t laid out for them to simply follow and that just leaves me with the question what came first, the chicken or the dickhead?

What I’m really nostalgic about is the lack of remorse for simply being a peer to the generic gamer.   I can’t help but cringe when I hear ignorance spouted as “poor game design”. Or maybe “I wouldn’t do that, this is bullshit”. Gamers can’t detach themselves from the fact it is a game and they play a character within that world. The avatar you are bestowed isn’t just an empty emotionless shell waiting for your opinion to occupy it. Your character quite frankly has been a part of their world a lot longer than you have and this is hard to understand for most. More to the point I am nostalgic about meaningless story, ‘save the castle, screw the princess’ nonsense. No need for player expression except for how epic the end of a level was when they just scaped by through to the finish line. Simpler times meant I didn’t have to concern myself with not only “what do I think of this world”, but “what will everyone else think of this world”. I realise it’s not my concern what people take out of games, but I don’t see developers wanting to move forward if the majority couldn’t care less. That and stupid just shits me to tears.

Recently the story of Call of Duty 6: Today Fighting 2 has been simplified to a Michael Bay piece of action-movie nonsense.   Plot holes and unexplained character actions have lead people to quantify the story as utter tripe, however incredibly fun.   I completely disagree and it isn’t because everything is secretly explained in subtext and I am just brilliant enough to illuminate it. The reason is because I filled in the gaps, whether my reading on the story is validated through narration or not, the answers have still been met. I as a player will understand that the story is not complete and instead of ignoring it favour of”wow wasn’t that fun I suppose” I will rationalise everything to an acceptable level for myself. For instance a lot of controversy has come through the ‘No Russian” level. Not that it’s too graphic, but that more player interaction and a reflected game response was needed. Basically, people feel “I just would shoot the terrorists, let me shoot them”.  

I just can’t empathise with their feelings at all. You as a player are a CIA undercover agent; you have been trained and briefed that this massacre will save many more lives. Whether as a person you would shoot them or not is irrelevant because you are not a CIA undercover agent. You have not spent years conforming your brain to follow orders to the very end; your opinion on the matter doesn’t affect this situation, your character’s does. Even worse was hearing people complain the by dying at the end of that segment, it loses all relevancy and was obviously just put into the game for shock value.   This couldn’t be further from the truth. If this piece was a by the numbers cut scene or if your emotions were perfectly played to so that you were the hero again, all hail you... all meaning would be lost. By playing a role that specifically alienates your feelings and causes an enate sense of helplessness and wrong, you will be affected by what takes place.

Games will continue to teeter on hanging themselves until they truly find their feet. In the past this meant they ignored story for the feel of accomplishment through gameplay. I honestly miss that feeling. However until we move beyond this complete lack of thought, narrative won’t progress. If we have no deeper thought towards games, they won’t ever have a deeper meaning. How can we expect games to walk paths yet not tread if we can’t bother to read the road signs they leave behind?